Thursday, April 08, 2010

COMMENTS: Okay, no more stupidpost-it notes from yours truly. This time, I'm taking the reins from SoSG Orel, and writing the GameThread myself (and changing our +2 hours convention a bit), in an effort to break the Dodgers' winless spiral from descending further into the abyss.

They're going to blame Blake DeWitt's 10th-inning error for the Pirates' victory yesterday, but it seems to me that going 2-for-15 with RISP and 12 LOB doesn't help much. Stranding Jamey Carroll on third with none out in the top of the ninth is inexcusable, but it's a group effort: James Loney, 0-for-2010, needs to be freed soon (though he made a sweet unassisted double play in the seventh); Rafael Furcal is batting .143 in the leadoff slot; and Manny Ramirez is the only regular with a batting average north of .300 after two games, it was his grounder to second that proved the final nail in our non-scoring ninth.

And then there's that Ortiz character--no, not the one you'd expect, who has three innings of no-run ball under his sizable belt to date--but Ramon Ortiz, who couldn't find the strike zone in the tenth to walk two more (following the DeWitt DeBacle) and fail to get past the first out in the bottom of the tenth.

At least we can avoid all the great expectations of making it through the season without losing a series. It's done, and we're only two games into the season! Let's just finish this game early and get the hell out of Pittsburgh--hopefully, with a win. (This would be a perfect time to begin showing Bill Plaschke what an ace you are, Your Royal Thighness.) Anyway, I'd rather be fishing in Florida this weekend.

illustration of pirates with plunder, from Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates, via wikipedia

Well played, MLB. You intentionally delay the audio on the At Bat app, forcing me to pony up an additional 20 bucks for the desktop version of Gameday Audio. And surprise! No delay on the desktop version!